Waves, Campfires And Sand
by CUtopia
Summary: Katie and Marcus are in training camp with their Quidditch team and on their free afternoon, they coincidentally meet at the beach.


This is loosely connected to my previous oneshot "There's Firewhisky In The Jar". I don't think you have to have read it in order to understand this one, but I just wanted to say that there is a story before this ;)

Thanks a lot to my fellow Wanderer Dina, who betaed this for me :)

Entry for the Last Ship Sailing Competition

 **Pairing:** Katie/Marcus

 _Prompts:_

(object) seashell

(word) splash

(word) childish

(dialogue) "I thought you weren't going to mention that again."

(emotion) nervous

 _Bonus Prompts:_

(second genre) Humor

(dialogue) "I just want to know one thing."

(object) hat

(word) illuminated

Entry for the Gringotts Prompt Bank

Quotes/Dialogue: Marvel's Jessica Jones

"Don't forget to smile." - Kilgrave

"_, you are a hard-drinking, short-fused, mess of a woman, but you are not a piece of shit." - Luke Cage

"I'm a man of my word… if I feel like it." - Kilgrave

(1970 Words)

* * *

 **Waves, Campfires And Sand**

An athlete never seemed to get a real vacation, that was something Katie Bell had learned pretty much on the first day of joining professional Quidditch. During the season, there was a game nearly every week, and in between those, the team was training and planning their game tactics against the next team.

When the season was over, there were only about three weeks for some private time, to travel home to visit their family or go on a vacation with friends or the partner. But Katie found that even then, one couldn't completely forget about the job – she had to watch her diet, and do some kind of sport every day in order to stay fit.

And after that short vacation, everything started again. Hard training sessions, hours spent flying to perfect every tiny move, every formation, until their butts were sore and their muscles ached.

The only positive thing about these months of excessive practice were the training camps.

Katie's team, the Wigtown Wanderers, did two every year – one for flying, somewhere in the Australian outback, where you could walk for days and see nobody, and one for athletics, on a small, secluded island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. A wizarding holiday resort was built on it, and the teams of the British and Irish Quidditch League always booked the entire hotel for three weeks to get their players in shape, away from prying eyes and nosy reporters.

It was as much fun as it was work, a nice mixture, but Katie also needed some time for herself sometimes.

She found these much needed moments of solitude at the endless beach right in front of the hotel. She was wandering along the shore line, letting the waves of crystal clear water splash around her ankles and the light breeze played with her dark brown hair that looked out from under the straw hat she was wearing. The gulls were screaming above her as they soared through the sky, the sun was warming her tanned skin and it was simply perfect.

Katie smiled to herself as she picked up a white seashell, wiping the damp sand off it, relishing in this undisturbed moment...

"Oi, Bell! There you are!"

Rolling her eyes, Katie straightened her back and turned around, seeing Marcus Flint, her fellow chaser, run towards her, wearing nothing but swimming trunks. The late afternoon light illuminated his body, making his skin glow and highlighting his impressive muscles. Katie actually had to slap herself internally to make herself stop staring at him.

It wasn't as if she hadn't seen him in this state of undress before – hell, she had slept on him while he was wearing nothing but boxer shorts, but still she felt like she was about to drool. Oh, she seriously needed him to be less attractive.

"Nice dress," Marcus laughed as he sprinted past her, slapping her onto the butt playfully before throwing himself into the azure ocean, whooping in excitement. It was a bit unlike him, nearly childish, but on the other hand, she really had learned that there was more about him than she had always thought when they still were in school. He had grown, the war had changed him, as it had changed them all, and he now was a more pleasant guy than he had been in the past.

Their little rivalry was still there, but it was harmless, and they were getting along rather well otherwise.

Staring at him with wide eyes, her mouth standing open in surprise, she watched him resurface and wipe some of his wet, black hair over the back of his head while presenting her his well-trained torso. Waves were splashing around his hips and droplets of water were running down his toned body, making her wish she was one of them.

"Enjoying what you see?"

Her head snapped up, and she started to feel nervous as she saw Marcus slowly wading through the waves towards her, a smug grin curling his lips. Taking a few steps backwards, nearly stumbling on the sand, Katie gulped hard and answered as confidently as she could: "I don't know what you mean, Flint!"

"Oh, you know it exactly, Katie. You were checking me out."

He looked oddly satisfied about it, and Katie was just happy that she wasn't blushing. She hated to give her feelings or thoughts away without intending to.

"No, I wasn't!"

"If you say so... I just want to know one thing..."

And before she could react, he had sprinted out of the water and thrown her over his shoulder, causing her to lose her hat. Katie yelled at him to put her down, her fists drumming down onto his firm back, but no amount of struggling could free her as he carried her into the ocean and ultimately threw her into the waves. A shriek escaped her before she went under, the water soaking her white dress immediately, and as she stuck her head out of the water, she saw him laughing.

"This isn't funny!" Katie growled angrily, but Marcus' laughter told her that he was definitely disagreeing.

"I just wanted to know which kind of sounds I could elicit from you," he replied and winked at her suggestively, bringing the memory of waking up in his bed, half naked, back to the surface.

"You're an asshole, Flint!"

"Don't forget to smile, Bell," Marcus shot back and slung a long, muscular arm around her body to pull her close to his side. "It was just fun. Also, you look hot when you're wet."

Immediately, she rammed an elbow into his side, making him groan, and purred back:"I was just asking myself how it would be to hear you groan because of me."

She could play this game just as excellent as he could, and this time, she wasn't suffering from a hangover and the fear that she might have slept with him while being intoxicated.

He was rubbing his side while eyeing her up, as if he was drinking her appearance in. In this moment, Katie realised that her white dress was probably leaving nothing much to the imagination, and she shoved her way past him, muttering: "You're a swine, Flint."

"Oh yeah, I know I am a piece of shit," Marcus answered, sounding annoyed but also a tiny bit serious, causing Katie to feel a little bit guilty.

"Marcus Flint, you are a hard-drinking, short-fused, mess of a man, but you are not a piece of shit," she exclaimed over her shoulder and suddenly, there was a splashing sound behind her, as if he was trying to follow her as fast as possible.

"This is the nicest thing you ever said about me, Katie," he laughed enthusiastically as he stopped right beside her, and Katie felt oddly warm about seeing him smile like this. His dark eyes were gleaming warmly and his smile... it was infectious.

OoO

She had no idea how Marcus and she ended up sitting next to each other in front of an improvised campfire, conversing about everything that came to their minds.

"You know, I am once again surprised how nice you can be if you want. I mean, especially on the night of the party celebrating our victory..." Katie said after a long moment of silence in which they had both stared at the sky, which was filled with thousands of stars forming a gorgeous picture.

"I thought you weren't going to mention that again. You were pretty embarrassed and even threatened to hex me if I told anyone too much about it!" Marcus cocked an eyebrow while giving her a puzzled look, and Katie shrugged.

"And you held your word, even though you could easily have told everyone who would listen that you shagged me. And you could have taken advantage of me and really done that."

"I'm a man of my word... if I feel like it," Marcus sighed, giving her his signature smug grin before gently bumping his shoulder against her and Katie smiled back while stretching her toes towards the warm flames.

"It actually scares me a tiny bit how much of a gentleman you can be if you want," Katie admitted, rubbing her palms over her arms unintentionally. The nights here were warm, but despite that she started to feel a little bit cold – after all, she was still wearing the dress that had been completely wet a few hours earlier, thanks to him throwing her into the ocean.

As if to underline her words, he gently wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her towards his naked chest, engulfing her in the warmth he emitted. Katie wanted to protest at first, but it felt so good, so comfortable to be close to him that she said nothing. Instead, she pressed her temple against his collarbone and slung her arms around him, seeking for even more heat.

"I am a man of mysteries," he chuckled lowly, his chest vibrating against her cheek and sending shivers down her spine. "But I can stop being a gentleman if you ask me to."

The second sentence was spoken in a much more serious, yet suggestive tone, and Katie raised her head, their gazes meeting in the dim light created by the stars and the crackling fire. Their breaths quickened, Marcus' eyes flickering down to her lips as she nervously licked them, unsure if she wanted to cross this barrier. On the other hand, she'd been fighting the temptation for quite some time.

Marcus took the decision from her as he suddenly crossed the last distance between them and gently pressed his lips against hers, kissing her with more sentience than she would have thought he was capable of displaying. She kissed him back, slinging her arms around his neck while he pulled her closer, his strong hands caressing her hips as she increased the intensity of their kiss, turning it from gentle to passionate in a matter of moments.

Katie moaned as his fingers sneaked under her dress, making her skin tingle whenever he touched her, and she started to explore him as well, running her fingertips over his hard muscles. The night seemed to heat up around them as Marcus broke the kiss to pull the dress over her head unceremoniously, an expression of raw desire gleaming in his eyes as he pulled her onto his lap possessively.

Marcus showered her shoulders with kisses before travelling lower, causing her to bury her fingers in his dark hair. She felt like losing her mind as his breath grazed her skin. He was finding her most sensitive spots as if he had done this a hundred times before, driving her wild, making her blood boil. Taking his time, he teased her, ignoring how she whimpered impatiently; he even shoved her hands away from the hem of his swimming trunks as she tried to touch him.

Only as Katie murmured desperate pleas into his ear he stopped and flipped them around, finally allowing her to undress him.

Before he took the final step, Marcus hesitated, looking her into the eyes as he whispered: "Is this really what you want?"

"Yes," she breathed back, pulling him down to kiss him softly while wrapping her legs around his hips, signalling him clearly what she wanted, what she'd wanted for so long.

The waves were crashing onto the beach, their sounds swallowing those of the couple making love by the fire, and for this night, everything was perfect.

Well, at least until dawn, when Katie discovered at which places she got sand thanks to their nightly adventure.


End file.
